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Monday, May 10, 2010

Up Close with a Rafflesia!

Well, two, actually...

The whole trip was really quite impromptu. I had contacted an agent a couple of days ago and they called me the following day to inform me about an upcoming trip. I immediately packed and drove down to Gopeng and spent a night there.

It was gloomy as we started trekking up the forest hill. By the time we saw the Rafflesia, it was practically pouring! My lens got foggy and there was no suitable place to set up a tripod.

But wait, there's another Rafflesia.

Fortunately the rain subsided and I was able to set up my tripod and start shooting away!

Up close with a Rafflesia (Rafflesia cantleyi?)

A group photo

An orang asli lady (aborigine) helping a boy to cross the river

We came across a couple of salt licks where mainly Rajah Brooke's birdwing butterflies congregated. Quite a magnificent sight!

The light was low and I didn't want to use flash. Prefer the look of natural lighting. I also didn't want to use high ISO as the images will be noisy.

Take a look at the exif:

Exposure: 0.3Aperture: f/5.6Focal Length: 17 mmISO Speed: 200

There's no way i could get a sharp shot if i were to handhold the camera. Even if I could, the mirror slap will affect image sharpness too. Mirror slap normally comes into play for exposure between shutter speed of between 1/50 to 2 seconds.

With a tripod, I could use mirror lock up or just turn on the live view (on Canon 40D) which will give me the same MLU effect.